Our History
First Baptist Church of Reed City was organized on April 2, 1872, and a church edifice was erected that same year. It was the first church built in the Todd Slashings Settlement, which was later known as Reed City. The population of the village was 2500 in 1889. The church building was also used as a school house. with the first public school in Reed City being held here.
At our centennial celebration our then pastor Brian Spencer wrote the following:
April 2, 1972
"In 1872 the United States of America was 96 years old. The civil war had been over for 7 years, Abraham Lincoln had been dead for 7 years and Ulysses S. Grant was serving his 3rd year as our 18th president. The U.S. consisted of just 37 states. Five years previously we'd purchased Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000. Between 1864 and 1894 we would go from fourth to first as the most productive manufacturing country in the world, and assembly lines were still 41 years away.
In 1872 Montgomery Ward established mail order merchandising while the A & P company was already 13 years old. The New York to San Francisco Railroad was 3 years old, Duryea's first U.S. automobile was still 21 years away, and the Wright's first flight 31 years off. We had progressed from the overland mail stagecoach line from Missouri to California in 1859 to the pony express in 1860 to the first New York to San Francisco telegraph in 1861, and in just 4 years Alexander Graham Bell would give us the telephone.
In 1872 dynamite was 10 years old, the typewriter 4 years old and barbed wire would be available in the next year. Thomas Edison would invent the phonograph in 5 years and the electric light in 7 years, Waterman the fountain pen in 12 years and Kodak the hand camera in 16 years.
In 1872 D.L Moody was president of the Chicago Y.M.C.A. and had founded Moody Church. In this same year he and Ira Sankey would team up and go to England for their first evangelistic European campaign. Moody Bible Institute wouldn't be established until 1889. Charles Spurgeon was 38 and had been preaching since 1861 at the 6,000 seat Metropolitan Tabernacle at Newington, England. Hudson Taylor's China Inland Mission was already 6 years old. Billy Sunday was 10 years old and Fanny Crosby had for 8 years been writing her hymns which would number about 6,000 ny 1915.
In 1873 David Livingstone would die and the great Caruso would be born...
One-hundred years of history, but it is more than that. It is 100 years of accountability. God's Word says that all men will stand before Him and give account. We thank God for the {charter members} and all who have come and gone before. I thank God for the present membership, and their desire to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. Should He tarry His coming may we be found faithful to our worship of Him, our love for each other, and our responsibility to a lost and dying world. And may our prayer continue to be "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
At our centennial celebration our then pastor Brian Spencer wrote the following:
April 2, 1972
"In 1872 the United States of America was 96 years old. The civil war had been over for 7 years, Abraham Lincoln had been dead for 7 years and Ulysses S. Grant was serving his 3rd year as our 18th president. The U.S. consisted of just 37 states. Five years previously we'd purchased Alaska from Russia for $7,200,000. Between 1864 and 1894 we would go from fourth to first as the most productive manufacturing country in the world, and assembly lines were still 41 years away.
In 1872 Montgomery Ward established mail order merchandising while the A & P company was already 13 years old. The New York to San Francisco Railroad was 3 years old, Duryea's first U.S. automobile was still 21 years away, and the Wright's first flight 31 years off. We had progressed from the overland mail stagecoach line from Missouri to California in 1859 to the pony express in 1860 to the first New York to San Francisco telegraph in 1861, and in just 4 years Alexander Graham Bell would give us the telephone.
In 1872 dynamite was 10 years old, the typewriter 4 years old and barbed wire would be available in the next year. Thomas Edison would invent the phonograph in 5 years and the electric light in 7 years, Waterman the fountain pen in 12 years and Kodak the hand camera in 16 years.
In 1872 D.L Moody was president of the Chicago Y.M.C.A. and had founded Moody Church. In this same year he and Ira Sankey would team up and go to England for their first evangelistic European campaign. Moody Bible Institute wouldn't be established until 1889. Charles Spurgeon was 38 and had been preaching since 1861 at the 6,000 seat Metropolitan Tabernacle at Newington, England. Hudson Taylor's China Inland Mission was already 6 years old. Billy Sunday was 10 years old and Fanny Crosby had for 8 years been writing her hymns which would number about 6,000 ny 1915.
In 1873 David Livingstone would die and the great Caruso would be born...
One-hundred years of history, but it is more than that. It is 100 years of accountability. God's Word says that all men will stand before Him and give account. We thank God for the {charter members} and all who have come and gone before. I thank God for the present membership, and their desire to honor the Lord Jesus Christ. Should He tarry His coming may we be found faithful to our worship of Him, our love for each other, and our responsibility to a lost and dying world. And may our prayer continue to be "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."
Where we are headed...
It has been over fifty years since our centennial celebration and much has transpired. We are thankful for what God is doing in our midst and we look forward to many years of Evangelizing the lost and Equipping the Saints of Reed City and around the world for many years to come.
Be a part of our story...
Join us every Sunday as we gather to worship together a 10 am and 11 am.